Congratulations, you’ve been accepted! You can’t wait to take that next step toward a bright future. But after the initial rush of opening the acceptance letter, the question follows: How to pay for school?

Unless you’re entering college with a full-ride scholarship, you’ll be paying for tuition, room, board, books and more. So how you choose to finance school may prove almost as important to your future as what you study while you’re there.

The good news? The challenge is not insurmountable. It just requires getting to work almost immediately after the acceptance letter arrives. Ken Bogacki, Vice President of Student Lending at US Standard Funds, offers some key points for both students and parents to consider.